president obama and the state department are expected to make a decision by the end of march, but it won't be easy. last weekend tens of thousands of environmentalists took to the streets of washington in what's being billed as the largest climate rally in u.s. history. opponents of the pipeline say that the extraction of the crude oil from the canadian tar sands is exponentially harmful to the environment. climate activist bill mcgibbon has said it's akin to lighting a carbon bomb, causing irrepairable harm to the environment. he emphasized in both his nagral and state of the union speempz this year wroosh proponents of the pipeline argue it will reduce our dependency on foreign oil and trans-canada, the energy company with the bid to build the pipelines, says it will create 20,000 jobs. last month 53 senators, 44 republicans and nine democrats wrote a letter to the president asking him to approve the pipeline saying it was a matter of economic development and energy security. in a recent poll 69% of americans say they support the construction of the pipeline, while only 17% oppose